


A Night Ride across the Causasus

by yoongisnoona



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Drabble, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-05-23
Packaged: 2017-12-12 17:33:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/814151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoongisnoona/pseuds/yoongisnoona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Ride on through the night; ride on." After the Alpha pack is defeated, Derek needs to face his demons but he doesn't know how. Stiles comforts him and helps him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Night Ride across the Causasus

**Author's Note:**

> This is a really quick prompt based on the song "A Night Ride Across the Caucasus" by Loreena McKennitt.

After they deal with the Alpha pack, there is a lot of pain remaining. Their band of broken spirits can barely call itself a Pack. A pack needs an Alpha—and no one is more broken in their circle than he is. 

Derek has taken to lurking around his childhood home again. He doesn’t remember how he got there this time. One second he was with the pack at the old train station and the next he was here, on his knees in front of the old Hale House staring at its hollowed out remains. He is overcome. He stares and what he sees breaks his heart all over again. Derek can remember rushing home after-school to play with his cousins. He can almost see all the pups chasing Peter, who promised the first one to catch him got to have an extra slice of his famous triple chocolate cake. He can hear the squeal of childish giggles and the roar of his father’s boisterous laugh. He can see his mother trying to keep a straight face as Derek whines for help when Laura pounced on him. 

Then all of that is drowned out by the sound of screams, the smell of soot and flames and the burns that engulfed the Pack’s body and soul. 

Although Derek has managed to assemble a new Pack together…they are in shambles. He cannot lead them when he has yet to grieve…to let go. The guilt he feels over his family’s tragedy is like a ball and chain, making it impossible for him to escape. 

The direction of the wind changes and that’s when Derek becomes aware of them. His Pack is in the shadows of the trees. They’re watching him carefully but he can’t bring himself to be angry or strong. He’s just tired.

A figure breaks away from the shadows and without turning, Derek is aware of who it is. Stiles. 

The boy says nothing to Derek, which is surprising. Instead, he keeps moving closer until he’s right behind Derek. Derek remains kneeling, doesn’t even turn to look at him. Stiles knees behind him — his heart beating erratically as he reaches his hands out. Stiles places one hand in the middle of Derek’s back, right above his tattoo and the other on Derek’s shoulder. Derek isn’t used to being touched by others. Not since the Pack died. Not since Laura was ripped out of his life. 

He welcomes the touch. If it had been anyone other than Stiles, he might have thrown them across the field. Stiles’ touch, however, didn’t feel condescending or like pity. It felt like understanding. 

\----------------

It is Stiles that first notices Derek is missing. Over the course of the past few months, he has become hyper aware of the Pack’s presence. When he realized that Derek was no longer with them at the abandoned train station, he all but had a panic attack. Had someone from the Alpha Pack come back? Was Derek injured? He quickly alerted Scott. Isaac, Erica and Boyd almost whined with the realization. They were distressed — after the hell they had all gone through, the four of them had started feeling more like a pack and less like a band of misfit soldiers. They had discovered that Derek cared about their safety and their happiness. The werewolves were out the door in a second and headed for the forest. Stiles, Allison and Lydia in followed shortly thereafter. 

They were halfway up a familiar trail when Stiles realized that they were headed to the Hale House. Stiles paused and called out to the others.

“Guys, wait…”

Surprisingly, Scott and the others stopped and turned to look at him. Stiles wasn’t used to people actually listening to him but in the Pack, he had work his way up the ranks. He was second only to… actually, he wasn’t sure who was ranked higher — him or Scott. “What’s wrong?” Scott asked. 

Stiles ran a hand through his now unruly hair and sighed. He hadn’t gotten around to shaving it in forver. “We shouldn’t just go barging in on him.”

“Stiles, you’re the one who pointed out that he was gone. Why shouldn’t we…” Erica began.

“He hasn’t been up there alone since before the Alphas. With all the crap that’s been going on…he hasn’t had time for himself. Time to — you know — address all his demons. He needs us but he doesn’t need us to crowd him and make him feel like he needs to put on a show and be Mr. Big Bad Alpha.”

They were silent as they mused over his words and then, it was Isaac who spoke.

“We won’t approach him,” he started. Stiles nodded in agreement. “You will.” 

“Wait, what?” Stiles blinked. Had he heard right?

“He trusts you, Stiles. In a way that he doesn’t trust the rest of us.”

Stiles opened his mouth, he wanted to argue but it was the truth. There was a sort of unspoken bond between him and Derek. It was bound to happen when you continually saved each other’s lives… even when you didn’t particularly like each other. He nodded again and followed the others through the forest.

\-----------------

Now that he was behind Derek, Stiles was tempted to say so many things but none of them seemed appropriate. He wanted to Derek that he understood, that it was okay, that it would get better… but Stiles remembers hating those words.

Instead, he moves in closer and rests his cheek on Derek’s back and murmurs, “We’re here with you. Let us be there for you.” 

Derek said nothing but placed his hand over the one Stiles had on his shoulder. With that gesture, the Pack erupted in howls from the tree-line — even Lydia and Allison joined in. And then, Stiles and Derek joined in the chorus … together.


End file.
